65

A. Varesano interviewing Anna Timko
-10-
6/23/72
Tape 16-2

445 they'd put some apples in there, some whole heads of cabbage in there, so for
the winter, you know, if you wanted to make this filled cabbage, what we
called[????], so then you'd take one, because you couldn't buy it,
you know, fresh cabbage, then in the wintertime already. So you would have
takin' sauerkraut, so that we could get some apples out of the barrel! They
were good! They were sour apples- they were good! But you had to have little
tarty apples, you know, to put them in cabbage. They were delicious that
way.

AV: Who did all the slicing of the cabbage in town?

AT: Anyone did. Well, the family did, who was ever putting up the cabbage, they
did their own slicing. You loaned this cutter from someone else I think I
have a little one here, it'll give you an idea of what it's like, but these
were great big ones. You had to put them on two chairs, it was a big, long
thing, and it had broad cutters. But I think I have a small one here, if my
daughter didn't take it already...... It was long thing, maybe about as long
as this otr longer, and about this wide, and then it had a little box on top
here, you know, to plut your cabbage into that box. It was a little square
thing. I mean it was big, so this box was bigger, too. There was a groove
there, and you woud slide it in there, and then you'd be holdin' this head
of cabbage and pushin' it back and forth, and they'd have about three knives,
bigger knives than this, you know. So that's how they used to cut it. And
then they'd salt it, before you'd put it in the battel, you had to put salt
on it. And that's the way it would salten up and it could pack down good.
If it wasn't packed, it would get soft. It would spoil. It would get rotten.
It would get real soft and yu had to throw it out. It wasn't any good. And
if you tamped it down good, and then if it fremented (sic) good, then it would
last, oh, all winter, and longer yet. And then ou put boards on it, you
know, just to fit it, like the barrel is, and you put heavy rocks on it, to
keep it down, you know, to keep it solid. And you had to be cleaning it
every so often, because it's comin' foam on it, so you had to wash that off,
and take all that water out and put fresh water into it.

AV: Well, how often did you have to do that?

AT: Well, it depended on the weather. If it was warm, the scum would form sooner.
474 If it was cold, it would last longer. You didn't have to change it so soon.

AV: Where did you store the barrel?

AT: Well, people had cellars, they stored them in the cellar.

AV: Where did you put it when it was fermenting?

AT: Well, you had to keep it in the house, where it was warm.

AV: And where was that?

AT: Anywhere, in the room anywhere, in the house temperature, you know. Room
temperature. You could keep it anywhere while it was fermenting. But after
it was done frementing(sic) already, well then they used to drop it down the
cellar, and keep them in the cellar, people who had cellars

AV: Well now, how can yu tell when it's done?

AT: Well, it won't ferment any more. See, it was like a foam coming up on it.
And when that foam stops, already, and the water will go down on it, already
then. The water won't be there any more. So then you have to clean it off
and put fresh water on it, and put them thing, and then you keep a cover on
it, some kind of cloth or something, you cover it so the dirt doesn't get
into it, so it'd stay clean.

AV: And put it in the cellar.

AT: Um-hmm. And if you didn't clean it quite often, and it was warm, well that
would smell then. The scum would form on it, and that would smell then. So